Journal of Applied Mechanical Engineering

Using control theory to design structures with tensegrity examples

4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

October 03-04, 2016 Orlando, USA

Robert Skelton

University of California- San Diego, USA

Keynote: J Appl Mech Eng

Abstract:

Form-finding is a non-convex problem, where a specified variety of structural members may fill a space, but the connections and the nodes are free to be optimized to achieve a specified shape or mechanical property. Tensegrity structures are prime examples of these types of topology optimization problems. From the static equations characterizing all equilibria, it is common to try solving the nonlinear problem of finding the forces in the members and finding the node locations that globally minimizes mass, subject to yield or buckling constraints. There is helpful information missing in this formulation of the problem. The kinematics and dynamics show how the natural motion must move from one configuration to another, and control theory allows one to use that information to solve a form-finding problem by dynamic relaxation.

Biography :

Robert Skelton is a Professor Emeritus at UCSD and a TIAS Faculty Fellow at Texas A & M. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Thomas Green Clemson Academy of Science and is a Fellow of AIAA and IEEE and a joint recipient of the Norman Medal from ASCE. He has received awards from the Japanese society and from the Promotion of Science, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He held the Russell Severance Springer Chair at UCB. Of his 5 books, the most recent are “Tensegrity Systems” (with de Oliveira) and “A Unified Algebraic Approach to Linear Control Design” (with Iwasaki and Grigoriadis).

Email: bobskelton@ucsd.edu